From Serena to Ringo: When Pop Culture Cracks the Political Arena

Some days, even political cartoonists decide to ditch politics. There are times when the pop culture landscape is so satirically fertile, it beckons insistently to be noticed -- a little come-hither headline that pouts as if it's picked up subtle PR tips from watching Britney yet again open her shirt, or Kanye open his mouth.

Then are good and varied reasons for stepping out of the box to comment on Entertainment Lite stories. We're not talking Michael Jackson's suspicious death here; no, this is about Woodstock anniversaries, "Twilight" hype and Beatles remastered catalogs/ videogames/ paraphernalia/ media clustergasms. That's because one of the rules for many cartoonists is: Follow the watercooler. In terms of pop culture, it's a way to stay broadly relevant, strike some lighter tones and, often, to get reprinted a little more in newsmagazines and on Web sites.

So what will rise to that level in the coming days? Serena Williams's expletive-laden outburst? Kanye West's behavior at MTV's VMA awards? Or perhaps just the quasi-political, like Tina Fey winning an Emmy for playing Sarah Palin, or host Glenn Beck gaining more headlines for playing whatever it is that he knowingly plays, exactly?

Compounding the reoccurring tide of nostalgic culture that periodically washes around, we have a set of recycled cartoons commenting on this fact. The Beatles were remarkable, but the same jokes would work with any number of other icons. The last panel of the third cartoon works in virtually any decade at all, simply change the name of the country.